Take a moment to soak in the current MLB standings. Yes, it's early, and you don't win anything in May, but it's been 16 damn years so I'm going to savour this. Guys named Robby Ray are pitching gems and reinforcements are on the way. It's happening, folks.
In honour of this premature jubilation, here's "World Series, Here We Come" by The Kokomo Beach Band, now a great deal more than just wishful thinking.
I wrote all about this song yesterday, so click here for the totally awesome story of "Hang On Blue Jays".
Paul Husiak and a bunch of folks at CHFI put this song together in 1982 or 1983. I remember it well from the early 80s, but completely forgot about it for 25 years or so. This song was literally no where to be found and this copy is a dub of the only physical copy in existance - an old crappy cassette dub Paul Husiak has stored away somewhere.
Here's "Hang On Blue Jays" by the folks at CHFI. The audio of Howard Cosell talking about Blue Jays baseball in the early 80s is solid gold.
Whether you're an old school Toronto Blue Jays fan or not, I think this makes for a pretty cool story. In other words, you're all ordered to read this entry, whether you give a lick about baseball or not.
It started when I wrote a tweet via Twitter about Ok Blue Jays. That tweet became my Facebook status, thanks to a recent change I made to my Facebook account. Here's that initial tweet.
@ShineBrightBear Ha, you're tweeting #1 in Google for 'Ok Blue Jays'!
My softball buddy Chuck, running the Mississauga Marathon next week, saw my Facebook status and threatened to load his iPod with old school Blue Jays songs. He reminded me of "Hang On Blue Jays", a Jays song I remember from the early 80s. It was to the tune of "Hang On Sloopy" and I used to hear it at Exhibition Stadium. I haven't heard it in over twenty years and I was aching to hear it once more. I needed to track down a copy.
Back to Twitter... I wrote the following tweet about 21 hours ago.
Actively searching for 80s Blue Jays parody song "Hang On Blue Jays" - the tune is "Hang On Sloopy", anyone have this MP3?
Iain Grant, Producer of The Bill Carroll Show on Newstalk 1010 CFRB, follows me on Twitter, and he quickly replied.
@torontomike it was the guys at CHFI that put "Hang on Blue Jays" together. Paul Husiak @ Astral may know, I'll ask tomorrow.
Then, this morning, an email from Iain Grant hit my inbox.
I'm pretty sure this is what you're looking for :). Paul Husiak, one of our engineers and I were at 'FI when it was recorded.
Here's the forwarded message from Paul Husiak that accompanied the MP3 I wanted.
Yes, I was at CHFI from 82 to 88.
I sang lead vocal, backing vocals, and played guitars and bass on it.
Fuzzy (John Howard) produced it and played keyboard.
Brian Master played drums
Bob Komsic, and Sharon Edwards and others sang backing vocals.
(attached is a dub of the only physical copy that I know exists - an old crappy cassette dub I still have somewhere.)
And that's how I scored the only copy of "Hang On Blue Jays", a Blue Jays novelty song from 1982 or 1983 that was never released and has absolutely no web presence to speak of... until now.
Yes, I will share this golden oldie soon. Over top the song is a great spoken piece by Howard Cosell and then introductions of our starting lineup... Willie Upshaw, Damaso Garcia, Alfredo Griffin, Garth Iorg, Cliff Johnson, Ernie Whitt, Dave Collins, Lloyd Moseby and Barry Bonnell. Yes, I said Barry Bonnell.
There was a time in my life where I caught every Jays game on television or listened to it called by Tom and Jerry on CJCL. I don't catch as many games as I used to, but I watched every inning of our 14-0 thrashing of the Chicago White Sox last night. We're 13-5 and lead the major leagues.
Did you catch that? We're 13-5 and lead the major leagues. That's worthy of another vintage Jays song from back in the day when our Blue Jays lead the major leagues in October.
Here's "Blue Jays Bop" by the CHUM FM Cheerleaders.
8 and friggin' 3. That's a helluva start. Doc Halladay is 3-0, we're knocking the cover off the ball and Cito is once again ruler of the universe. Life is good.
It's time to share another old school Blue Jays song. This one is by Humble Howard. I asked Humble about it, and he didn't even remember recording it. I had to play it for him in order to get this response.
Yup that's me. I forgot all about it but I did that at the Mix in the spring of 92 just before going back to 102 and never thought about it again.
Weird.
Things will be fine in 2009. Blue Jays all the way!
The Toronto Blue Jays home opener is tomorrow. I won't be at the game, because I'll be busy earning my Father of the Year award, but more on that later.
In honour of another new Blue Jays season, here's a whole bunch of old school Blue Jays songs I've shared over the past seven years of blogging. Throughout the season, I'll share more. If you remember Kelly Gruber's fog grandslam, George Bell's opening day trifecta of homers or those 9th inning two out singles Dave Stieb gave up, you'll love this.
OK Blue Jays (Let's Play Ball!) - Keith Hampshire w/ The Bat Boys
You can smell spring in the air. Today, Canada takes on the USA in WBC baseball action at the ballpark formerly known as SkyDome. The Blue Jays are playing spring training games in Florida and I'm getting excited about another season of slo-pitch.
In this spirit on this fine Saturday in March, here's a great Blue Jays song featuring the voices of Blue Jays baseball, Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth. Hearing Tom on this track talking about Devo leading off and Robbie and Joe following him in the line-up makes me miss those glory days of Blue Jays baseball. Yes, I'm old enough to remember playoff baseball in this city.
I fear this plea will fall on deaf ears. Even with the return of Cito our Toronto Blue Jays are 13 games back of the AL East leading Tampa Bay Rays (that sounds funny) and we're 9 games back of the Red Sox for the wildcard. It sure doesn't seem as if the Jays will be going all the way in 2008.
"Come On, Let's Go (All The Way Blue Jays)" is credited to The CJCL All-Stars. Let me know if you can identify the vocalist. It is, of course, a reworking of Ritchie Valens' "Come On, Let's Go".
Our Blue Jays are a little streaky this season. After a dismal stretch when our bats turned to dust, we've now won four in a row.
Since we're doin' it right, it's time for another Blue Jays song. This is "Doin' It Right (On the Jays Side Of Town)" by Brother Jake Edwards and the Q-107 Q-Jays.
If Brother Jake sounds familiar, it's because he was The Champ. Go Jays Go!
Things are going from bad to worse for our Blue Jays. We lost 6 in a row until I single handedly pulled us out of our funk by sharing Shaker's Rap. We won that day, but we haven't won since, so I'm pulling out the heavy artillery.
Joel sent me this song he recently ripped to MP3 from a single he had in his collection. It's called "We Got The Blue Jays" and this is the R.B.I. Single Version. Yes, there were other versions.
Even if you're not a Jays fan, I highly recommend clicking play below. This is a really catchy, surprisingly decent tune. It's guaranteed win night, Toronto. We Got The Blue Jays!
Take a moment to soak in the current MLB standings. Yes, it's early, and you don't win anything in May, but it's been 16 damn years so I'm going to savour this. Guys named Robby Ray are pitching gems and reinforcements are on the way. It's happening, folks.
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